December 16, The bank unions begin a two day strike today. Banks like Punjab National Bank, State Bank of India and many other state run banks will remain affected with their services. Around 9 lakh employees are likely to participate in the strike. UFBU announced the strike to protest against the decision of privatization of several banks in the country by the government.
The unions have been protesting since the government listed Banking Laws (Amendment) Bill 2021, to privatize two public sector banks.
Public sector banks like SBI and Central Bank of India appealed to its employees to refrain from the two-day strike.
Earlier, on Monday, Central Bank of India tweeted regarding their appeal given to AICBEF/AICBOF to not to participate in the strike.
We attach appeals given to AICBEF/AICBOF to not to participate in the proposed strike on 16th & 17th of this month. @DFS_India @FinMinIndia pic.twitter.com/HaeMIEaEnN
— Central Bank of India (@centralbank_in) December 13, 2021
SBI also tweeted to its employees earlier on Monday, urging them to refrain from their decision of participating in the strike earlier on Monday. “We request our staff members to reconsider their decision and refrain from participating in the proposed strike on 16th and 17th December 2021 in the interest of our customers, investors and the Bank. Furthermore, considering the ongoing pandemic situation, resorting to a strike will cause great inconvenience…” SBI said.
However, Soumya Datta, general secretary of All India Bank Officers’ Confederation and All India State Bank Officers’ Federation said: “We are going ahead with the strike unless government assures to withdraw the proposed bill to privatize banks.”
Apparently, the bank unions have decided to go with the two-day strike until the government withdraws its proposed bill on the matter of privatization of banks.
